NYC Teen Author Festival: NYC Teen Author Festival Symposium

Date and Time
March 22, 2014

Location

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum
For ages 13 to 18 years
Event Details

What’s the Worst Thing That Could Happen?

Each of the authors below puts his or her characters through some pretty harsh conditions.  In this session, each one will come to the podium to argue for the worst thing that could happen to a character (i.e., “She could be forced to fight to the death against twenty-three other teens in a televised arena!”) and then read short passage from his or her book to support the argument.  At the end, the moderator will weigh all the arguments and determine which is the absolute worst thing that could happen to a character.

  • Jessica Brody
  • Frankie Brown
  • Sarah Beth Durst
  • T. M. Goeglien
  • Jeff Hirsch
  • Emmy Laybourne
  • Alex London
  • Cristin Terrill

moderator:  Lucas Klauss (fittingly, the author of Everything You Need to Know to Survive the Apocalypse)


Summer Reading

Each of these novelists have new books set in the summer, and explore the effect a certain summer can have on a character.  This will be a conversation about why “that summer” is such a recurring theme of YA.  Each author will read a brief passage about the summer and its effects, and then a discussion will ensue.

  • Jen Calonita
  • Gae Polisner
  • Morgan Matson
  • Jessica Verdi

moderator:  Melissa Walker


Walking the Tightrope:  Finding the Way Through Secrets, Lies, and Other Treachery

In the latest novels by these authors, the main characters are girls who have to very carefully watch where they step . . . because they’ve fallen into high-stakes situations where the difference between safety and harm can be the ability to tell friend from foe.  Each author will talk a little about her book and the situation in which she’s put her heroine, followed by a discussion about the treacherous parts of writing about treachery.

  • Alexandra Coutts
  • Jacqueline Green
  • Alissa Grosso
  • Alexandra Monir
  • Elisa Nader
  • Rebecca Serle

moderator:  Aaron Hartlzer


What We Write About When We Write About Teenagers in Love

  • Gayle Forman
  • David Levithan
  • Lauren Myracle
  • Rainbow Rowell

Literary Matchmaking, Round Two

All of the authors have been told what this entails.  The rest of you will have to show up to find out.